that egypt wants from us. not only u.s. aid, but help in getting this imf loan. and i think however this is resolved, because it's not going to resolve the long-term problem, perhaps it can help clarify hopefully in a good way the egyptian role. it could open up and just shatter that long-term linchpin of stability in the mideast between egypt and israel. >> woodruff: do you see a role for the u.s. in the short term? >> yes. in explaining quietly to egypt the essential nature of keeping the peace troty with israel and calming down the situation and probably the same quietly for israel which has, of course, bigger news -- --. >> i would say i think syria remains the most fragile thing. the explosion of syria would spill into everything else. so our role, i don't know what our role is in syria but i have a feeling our attention will be focused wherever it is. >> woodruff: margaret's reporting was excellent tonight. the two of you were excellent, ruth marcus, david brooks, thank you both. >> brown: and finally to